Danny Boy
DANNY BOY
The Koroit Irish Festival is home to the Koroit Bakehouse Australian Danny Boy Championship.
In 2024 the winner was the incredible Demby McKenzie.
Entries for the 2025 Koroit Bakehouse Australian Danny Boy Championship are now being taken and can be done by emailing us at info@koroitirishfestival.com.au
First prize is $1000 so get your entry in now!
Entrants in the 2025 Danny Boy Championship will be selected from heats run on the day of the Festival, with a judging panel determining who moves into the final later that evening.
Danny Boy Heats: To be held on Saturday April 26 at the Commercial Hotel Koroit.
Final: Koroit Theatre.
The finalists will meet at the Koroit Theatre where the champion will be decided.
Your Festival pass wristband allows you to attend the Danny Boy Final. Seats are limited so get in early.
For those who want to sing along, here are the words to the famous ballad!
Oh, Danny Boy the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling,
It’s you, it’s you must go, and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow,
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow.
It’s I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow,
Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
But when ye come, and all the flow’rs are dying,
And if I’m dead, as dead I well may be.
Ye’ll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
And I shall hear though soft you tread above me,
And though my grave shall, warmer, sweeter be.
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I will sleep in peace until you come to me.
Past winners
2024 - Demby McKenzie
2023 - Angela Fitzgerald
2022 - Ruby McKenna
2021 – Geraldine Finn
2019 – Isabel McCosh
2018 – Gabby Steel
2017 – Lisa Walsh
2016 – Katie Hayward
2015 – Shannon Salisbury
2014 – Tali Morrissey
2013 – Nancie Schipper
2012 – Maja Pearson
2011 – Anne Bakker
2010 – Kevin Bowman
2009 – Carolyn Tomkin
2008 – Cassidy Hill-Davidson, David Cunningham
2007 – Rebecca Tomkin, Anne Gasko
2006 – Maja Ryan
2005 – Tom Nicholson
2004 – Gerrard Norman
2003 – Barbara Nolte (Brooks)
2002 – Peter McElgunn
2001 – Ray Willis
2000 – Michael Morgan
1999 – Elizabeth Mason
1998 – Anne De Vries
2024 champion Demby McKenzie.